Ventulett NEXT Generation Visiting Fellow

Jonathan Dessi-Olive is the current Ventulett NEXT visiting Fellow at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture. His work takes a critical approach to technology while integrating history and theory of architecture, contemporary compression-only construction, and computational design.

As a designer, builder and scholar, his motivation is to help designers and builders to learn to design more intuitively, systematically, and visually. He firmly believes making is inseparable from design, and provides a context for learning that brings to light the relationship between current design tools and methods, and our necessity to make breakthroughs in techniques of assembly and construction.

His recent contributions have been to develop new methodologies for designing and building high-performance, sustainable concrete structures in the United States, Europe and Africa.

As the inaugural winner of the RAMSA Traveling Fellowship, and in collaboration with Minneapolis-based NGO Organic Health Response, Jonathan initiated and led a project to construct a hybrid wind and solar-powered radio studio on a remote island in Kenya.

The building was constructed using historical construction techniques, adapted through local building traditions. This project was presented at the TEDxPenn 2015 conference and has since served as the basis of his research.

About the Ventulett NEXT Generation Visiting Fellows

The Ventulett NEXT Generation Visiting Fellows is a new initiative at the School of Architecture intended for young faculty who are at the beginning of their careers and interested in interdisciplinary teaching and research that merges design, technology and culture.

Fellows teach design studios and workshops at both the undergraduate and graduate level and participate actively in the life of the school. The workshops can be used to assist the Fellows in their own directed design research that will result in a public exhibition and lecture at the school.

Ventulett NEXT Generation Visiting Fellows are given an unparalleled opportunity to advance their individual interests through teaching and design research utilizing the full resources of the College of Design including our Digital Fabrication & Robotics Laboratory that houses a suite of industrial-scale CNC equipment.

Fellows conduct interdisciplinary work with junior faculty from other schools within the College of Design and across campus including computing, engineering and science and are given support in making these connections. Fellows also have the opportunity to work with SoA research faculty and PhD students on projects of common interest.

Announcements for new Fellow applicants are made each fall and applications are reviewed beginning on November 1 of each year.